Can you tell me what I am looking for? A tale of GAS and tone

#22
_Tay_ said:
Why not get a P Bass and change the neck?? I put a Status Graphite on my Jag bass and it is a beautiful neck. Thin, sleek and fast. Strong too! (i dropped it headstock first once and it cracked the bass a little... no mark on the neck :roflmao:)
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Wasnt sure how that would affect the sound. Was looking for an out of box solution before I started ripping out pickups and necks
 
#23
smeet said:
asses from different manufacturers (Yahama, Roscoe, Nord
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Green Knight said:
Are you playing with others?
I find the more I play alone, the more I get obsessed about the sound coming out of the amp.
When I jam every weekend, however, it's all about the sound of the bass in relation to the other instruments. I think much less solipsistically in those situations about my own, specific tone.
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Yes. I am in a band and recording. All the bases are serviceable for playing live...the Dingwalls break up sounds a little weird through a clean amp... It's the recording tone I am struggling to achieve. It has also been mentioned tone can be achieved by playing technique... I have been obsessively A/B testing that as well
 
#24
MiserMunster said:
Hello all,

I am a relatively new bass player, as I have been a guitar player for 20 years. I was losing passion for music until I picked up my long-neglected EBMM Stingray. I started playing and subsequently started cycling out the guitar gear I wasn't using anymore.

I started playing in a band that's akin to ...Portishead is the closest comparison I can make.

Anyway, I am running into a bunch of issues with the tone of my instrument for recordings. There is 'a sound' that I am looking for, and I am not sure where to get it.

I Play fingerstyle mostly- Quasi-Jazzy / Boom Bap, Reggae, and Sade-esque lines.

I have an EBMM that I tried Medium and XL Round Wounds strings on that missed the mark for being too bright and boomy. Currently, I am trying flat wounds that sound too wooly coming through my cab, and recording it is just ok to my ears, even with futzing with the EQ.

Soo... I bought a Fender American Performer Mustang Bass- mostly because it plays like a guitar, but much to my dismay...whatever this grease bucket thing is, it sounds thin in a mix...Like it is really missing something. I thought with the PJ pickup configuration, I would be able to get P, and J sounds. I ended up getting neither, and while good, it seemed to be further away from what I wanted.

The journey continued when I saw a garish Dingwall D-roc on Craigslist. I traded my kemper for it.

I am absolutely in love with how this thing plays, and there is a pickup selection that almost nails what I am looking for on the E and A string, both live and when recording. However, when I play the higher strings, a pronounced growl comes through...Sounds godlike with a Fuzz and/or distortion pedal but not the style I am playing now. Definitely a keeper bass, but not the droid I am looking for.

Which brings me to the elephant in the room. The legendary P bass and all its iterations...

I think the tone I am after most closely resembles



Everything I am reading says perhaps the P is what I am looking for. However, when I hop down to the guitar center and play them, I cannot say I love the neck or the frets. Plus, there is a dizzying number of P bass variations and clones.

Do I just suck it up, get one, and learn to love it...is the tone that much more in the pocket compared to everything else? Should I get a MIM or MIJ (I have always bought premium instruments for resale value and quality) and just whip it out for recording? Or should I look to premium Ps beyond what Fender is offering to get a better experience... Dingwall Super P is back ordered 2.5 years; the G+L LB-100, as does Nash's, seems enticing. Then there are outliers like Suhr (love their guitars), Mike Lull (I live close to his shop, and his basses are the best I have ever played but $$$$$$$), and Kiesel/Carvin (might look better but resale is sketch).

Or is my problem DI? Should I get l a Noble and use the EBMM

My Comps and DI are the following. I have the Empress Bass Comp, the Agular TLC comp, I have the Two Notes LeBass, and the Sansamp VT

I know that was a lot, but I would appreciate tapping the vast knowledge repository of experience on this board.
Click to expand...


I think you're looking to mimic an upright bass. The Portishead I've heard, and that Hurley video, both have that vibe to me.

Here's a dirty secret: the original Fender Aerodyne, the black one with PJ pickups and cream binding, has the P pickup 3/4" further toward the neck. It still sounds like a P, but it is much deeper. Note this is not so with the modern Aerodyne Jazz basses, just the original black with cream binding. The neck is thin, but the downside is that it has a 7.5" radius neck, which you may find off-putting.

If you get a p bass, any Jazz bass neck, which is thinner, can be swapped onto a P bass. They're standard.

If you like MM, you could try a dual pickup HH. That'll definitely get you deep enough. But I think their necks are pretty wide. Mine is.

I can mimic a double bass using a Jazz bass: I select only the front pickup, and pluck the string around the 14th fret, give or take. Plucking the string way up toward or even on the neck is the key.

If you want to go all out, look at a hollow body bass. I'd be surprised if a hollow body didn't do it.
 
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#26
bdplaid said:
I think you're looking to mimic an upright bass. The Portishead I've heard, and that Hurley video, both have that vibe to me.

Here's a dirty secret: the original Fender Aerodyne, the black one with PJ pickups and cream binding, has the P pickup 3/4" further toward the neck. It still sounds like a P, but it is much deeper. Note this is not so with the modern Aerodyne Jazz basses, just the original black with cream binding. The neck is thin, but the downside is that it has a 7.5" radius neck, which you may find off-putting.

If you get a p bass, any Jazz bass neck, which is thinner, can be swapped onto a P bass. They're standard.

If you like MM, you could try a dual pickup HH. That'll definitely get you deep enough. But I think their necks are pretty wide. Mine is.

I can mimic a double bass using a Jazz bass: I select only the front pickup, and pluck the string around the 14th fret, give or take. Plucking the string way up toward or even on the neck is the key.

If you want to go all out, look at a hollow body bass. I'd be surprised if a hollow body didn't do it.
Click to expand...
Excellent thank you
 
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#30
You’re more likely to find a PJ with the thin neck than a P (unless you swap it yourself). Then you can just turn off the J. Fender makes some, a lot of companies do. IMHO, that P sound is from a P pickup in that position. Too far forward for me sounds too tubby, too far back can sound too bright.
 
#33
From Video you posted might want to listen to New Fender AV 54P

Also notice he is plucking in front of pickup closer to neck

But the Sound you hear out of the speakers is in the Mix
If you listen to some Bass soloed tracks of popular songs and then full mixed version it's ear opening.
 
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#34
Maybe try a Low Pass Filter (LPF). This would allow you to determine a ceiling for the notes you play. In essence nothing above a specific frequency gets through. You may be able to eliminate unwanted frequencies which sounds like what you may be dealing with. Could also consider an HPF too.

Here’s a wealth of information:

High Pass Filter (HPF) and Low Pass Filter (LPF) Mega Thread
 
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#35
Thats a P, probably flats and a mute but you dont need either if you have your right hand down.
Palm mute and thumb it gets you mighty close.
If you want that extra grease, go with the flats and bridge mute/foam under the strings.

You can get there with a Jazz with neck pickup biased which is how I approach it
 
#37
MiserMunster said:
Hello all,

I am a relatively new bass player, as I have been a guitar player for 20 years. I was losing passion for music until I picked up my long-neglected EBMM Stingray. I started playing and subsequently started cycling out the guitar gear I wasn't using anymore.

I started playing in a band that's akin to ...Portishead is the closest comparison I can make.

Anyway, I am running into a bunch of issues with the tone of my instrument for recordings. There is 'a sound' that I am looking for, and I am not sure where to get it.

I Play fingerstyle mostly- Quasi-Jazzy / Boom Bap, Reggae, and Sade-esque lines.

I have an EBMM that I tried Medium and XL Round Wounds strings on that missed the mark for being too bright and boomy. Currently, I am trying flat wounds that sound too wooly coming through my cab, and recording it is just ok to my ears, even with futzing with the EQ.

Soo... I bought a Fender American Performer Mustang Bass- mostly because it plays like a guitar, but much to my dismay...whatever this grease bucket thing is, it sounds thin in a mix...Like it is really missing something. I thought with the PJ pickup configuration, I would be able to get P, and J sounds. I ended up getting neither, and while good, it seemed to be further away from what I wanted.

The journey continued when I saw a garish Dingwall D-roc on Craigslist. I traded my kemper for it.

I am absolutely in love with how this thing plays, and there is a pickup selection that almost nails what I am looking for on the E and A string, both live and when recording. However, when I play the higher strings, a pronounced growl comes through...Sounds godlike with a Fuzz and/or distortion pedal but not the style I am playing now. Definitely a keeper bass, but not the droid I am looking for.

Which brings me to the elephant in the room. The legendary P bass and all its iterations...

I think the tone I am after most closely resembles



Everything I am reading says perhaps the P is what I am looking for. However, when I hop down to the guitar center and play them, I cannot say I love the neck or the frets. Plus, there is a dizzying number of P bass variations and clones.

Do I just suck it up, get one, and learn to love it...is the tone that much more in the pocket compared to everything else? Should I get a MIM or MIJ (I have always bought premium instruments for resale value and quality) and just whip it out for recording? Or should I look to premium Ps beyond what Fender is offering to get a better experience... Dingwall Super P is back ordered 2.5 years; the G+L LB-100, as does Nash's, seems enticing. Then there are outliers like Suhr (love their guitars), Mike Lull (I live close to his shop, and his basses are the best I have ever played but $$$$$$$), and Kiesel/Carvin (might look better but resale is sketch).

Or is my problem DI? Should I get l a Noble and use the EBMM

My Comps and DI are the following. I have the Empress Bass Comp, the Agular TLC comp, I have the Two Notes LeBass, and the Sansamp VT

I know that was a lot, but I would appreciate tapping the vast knowledge repository of experience on this board.
Click to expand...


 
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#38
Personally, I prefer to change my tones... which are each dependent on the song at hand. I've always viewed playing with one specific sound as being much the same as eating the same specific meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner day in and day out forever.

Changing my tone allows me to explore different areas/styles on the bass and encourages me to go down paths I might otherwise miss.

But again, it is all about supporting the song as well as I possibly can.
 
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#39
There are a couple of people here who have mentioned double humbuckers and I think that's pretty much spot on. You get a lot of versatility and the ability to blend the pickups allows you to dial in as much fatness as you want. My personal favorite of these is the EBMM Bongo HH. Between the 4 band EQ and varying where I'm plucking, I can make that bass into anything I want.
 
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